JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Coronavirus infections have barely affected many of the remote Pacific islands, but the consequences of the pandemic have been huge, disrupting the supply chain leading to crucial food imports and sending prices as tourism decreases.
With an approaching food crisis, many governments have launched community initiatives to help alleviate shortages: expanding fishing seasons, expanding indigenous food collection lessons, and strengthening seed distribution programs that allow to residents greater self-sufficiency.
“Initially we started with 5,000 seeds and we thought we would finish them in nine months. But there was a very big response and we finished distributing the seeds in a week, ”said Vinesh Kumar, head of operations at Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture.
The project provides residents with vegetable seeds, seedlings and basic equipment for agriculture to help them grow their own gardens.
Fiji resident Elisabeta Waqa said she had planned to start a garden before the pandemic, but without a job, extra time at home and then from the ministry and friends, she finally took action.
With the goal of having a “zero financial investment,” Waqa collected buckets, boxes, and other potential planters that were discarded along the roadside and in the trash. Soon his garden was transformed into containers of green beans, cucumber, cabbage and other produce.
“When I started harvesting about two, three weeks later, that’s when I realized, God, this is a hobby that people have had for so long. I thought about how much money I could save to do it, ”Waqa said.
Geographically isolated with limited arable land and increased urbanization, many of the Pacific island countries and territories have seen their populations move from traditional agriculture-based work to tourism. The trend has created a greater dependence on imported foods such as beef, noodles and other highly processed foods, rather than the traditional diet of locally grown items such as yams and nutrient-rich taro.
Eriko Hibi, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Liaison Office in Japan, defined the change as a “triple burden” of health problems: malnutrition, deficiencies. micronutrients and obesity.
When the pandemic hit, almost every country in the region closed its borders. Maritime supply chains, including fertilizers for farms and food, were disrupted and caused prices to rise. In Suva, Fiji, the cost of some fresh fruits and vegetables increased by up to 75% during the first few weeks.
At the same time, tourism – which according to Hibi accounted for up to 70% of some countries’ gross domestic product – came to a halt, leaving thousands unemployed with less access to food.
“It’s not just about the availability of prices in the market, but also the purchasing power of consumers, which has gone down,” Hibi said.
In Tuvalu, the government conducted workshops that taught methods of producing young indigenous foods, such as sowing taro and collecting sap from coconut trees. In Fiji, the government extended the fishing season for coral and grouper trout that could be sold for income or used as food. Numerous governments encouraged residents to return to rural areas with stronger independent food resources.
Tevita Ratucadre and his wife moved back to a rural village in Fiji to save on rent and food after being fired from the hotel where they worked due to COVID-19.
In the city, “you have to buy everything with money, even if you have to put food on the table,” Ratucadre said. “In the village you can cultivate your own things.”
After seeing how his parents cultivated when he was little, Ratucadre said he was able to remember how to plant and grow cassava stems from a neighbor. He now grows enough food for his family, he said.
“When I worked, I bought everything I wanted to eat when I went to the grocery store,” he said. “Now I have to plant and eat everything I’ve planted.”
Mervyn Piesse, research manager at the Australian-based research institute Future Directions International, said it was too early to know what the potential health benefits might be, but regional diets could shift from imports to more fresh food, even after the pandemic.
“I think there’s a movement in some parts of the Pacific for people to start thinking,‘ If we can grow food ourselves during a global pandemic, why can’t we do the same at normal times? “” Piesse said.
Waqa said she has already made up her mind, although she has started working again, she has taught her older children how to take care of the garden and harvest the produce as she leaves.
“Now I save money on food, I know where my food comes from and I feel safer eating,” he said. “I don’t want to go back to how things were before.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.